1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an insulation sleeve assembling apparatus and insulation sleeve assembling method that assembles a tubular insulation sleeve to a lead wire formed of a plurality of conductors.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a process in which an insulation sleeve is assembled to a lead wire formed of a plurality of conductors extending outward from a stator of a motor. In this case, in a process previous to the above process, the plurality of conductors are tied together by tape so that the plurality of conductors that constitute the lead wire do not come apart. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-97300 (JP-A-2007-97300) describes that a plurality of conductors that constitute a lead wire are sequentially put together by a machine to align the distal ends of the conductors and then inserted into an insertion hole of a tubular insulation sleeve while the insertion hole is being guided. However, in the invention described in JP-A-2007-97300, in the process previous to a process of manufacturing a stator, the plurality of conductors of the lead wire are temporarily tied with tape to prevent the conductors from coming apart. In order to prevent the temporarily tied tape from peeling off, the temporarily tied tape has extended portions extending from a portion that is wound around the conductors, and then the extended portions are bonded with each other. According to the method described in JP-A-2007-97300, when the lead wire is inserted into the insulation sleeve, the tape, particularly, the extended portions of the tape, interfere with the insertion and, therefore, the insulation sleeve cannot be inserted or insertion of the insulation sleeve takes time. Thus, in order to remove the tape after the distal end of the lead wire is inserted in the insulation sleeve, it is necessary to peel the tape that ties the lead wire, thus requiring an unnecessary work. In addition, to avoid the unnecessary work, it is conceivable that the tape is initially peeled from the conductors, and the distal end of the lead wire is inserted beforehand in an insertion tube that is different from the insulation tube in order to prevent the conductors from coming apart. However, this method requires additional work and time for inserting the conductors into the insertion tube and, therefore, productivity deteriorates.